Lanthanum chloride BRS dual reactor

[Chrisrush]

Mike Cao (uhuru) listed a brs dual reactor on his TOTM article but I haven't been able to find any pictures. I tried to pM but he hasn't responded. Any have any pictures of a similar reactor?

Chris

 

[uhuru]

Its just a BRS dual reactor with a T and check valve on the input line. The reactor is fed by a small pump with a ball valve to slow down the flow. The lanthanum is dosed by a peristaltic pump. They both join at the T and from there empty into the reactor at a drip. I took down my system so I don't have any pics. The reactor did require regular cleaning or it would clog with bound phosphate. In my case, this would happen within a couple of weeks. The output of the reactor feeds into the input of a protein skimmer. This way any lanthanum/bound phosphate that makes it out of the reactor gets skimmed out. I did notice bound phosphate in my skimmate as well. Still, some lanthanum is going to make it into the tank over time.

Onsan on the azoox forum suggested lanthanum glycolate hexahydrate instead as he found it precipitates out of solution better. I believe he simply dosed it into a cup in a slow flow part of the sump and it would all settle in there.

Hope that helps!

 

[Chrisrush]

Thanks Mike. My tank is mainly SPS/LPS so I don't think that I'll need to run LaCl full time, but I read about your reactor and it peaked my interest. I dripped my LaCl dilution (2.5 mL / 1L) into a filter sock. Lowered my PO4 from .48 to .15 in 3 hrs. I'm pretty impressed.

Will you use it in the future or go with the glycolate hexahydrate version?